that's why we need everyone to wear the masks. again, i know they are uncomfortable. i know this is becoming a politicized topic but it shouldn't be. we all want the same thing. less deaths, less illness, the economy to come back. maria: thank you so much. thank you, brian, joanie, great show. have a great day. from all of us, happy independence weekend, july fourth upon us. that does it for us. "varney & company" begins right now. ashley webster in for stuart. take it away. ashley: thank you very much, maria. good morning to you. good morning, everyone. stuart, by the way, off today but america as a whole is getting back to work. 4.8 million jobs added in june, a blowout. that in addition to the 2.5 million added in may, you could say the jobs are certainly coming back. in the next hour, president trump's top economic adviser larry kudlow will be here to talk about the recovery, the reopening and a possible confrontation with china. as for the markets, rallying on

that jobs news to end this holiday-shortened week. check the futures. the dow pointing to a jump of 459 points. good for a 1.75% gain. strong gains on the s&p and nasdaq. by the way, the nasdaq in record territory once again, led, guess what, by the big tech names that we follow so closely. all of these names right here are in record territory this morning. let's begin with tesla, up another 9% this morning after reporting more than 90,000 sales last quarter. that absolutely blew away that word we don't like to say, expectations, and up the stock goes. $102. what a ride for tesla. amazon, that stock closing in on $3,000 a share. certainly amazon has been the winner during the lockdown. microsoft, solidly above $200 a share. microsoft also doing very well, thank you very much. everybody's watching netflix these days. huge winner during the pandemic.

that stock coming close to $500 a share. well, president trump is well aware of this rally. he tells fox business that the market, though, will crash if joe biden gets elected. by the way, we expect to see the president in our 11:00 eastern hour for what the white house is calling the spirit of america showcase to kick off the july fourth weekend festivities. tomorrow, he will be traveling to mt. rushmore for a fireworks display. that should be something. also, the department of homeland security will be guarding our national monuments this weekend against vandals. more on that throughout the program. i am ashley webster in today for stu. we have a big live action three hours ahead for you, including your comments about the show. oh, my. buckle up. the jobs thursday edition of "varney & company" starts right now.

ashley: we will get back to that jobs report in just a moment but first we do have some breaking news from the treasury. this to deal with loans for the struggling airlines. edward lawrence is on it. what have you got, edward? reporter: the treasury department announces that five major airlines have now agreed to terms under the cares act to take that loan money. talking about american airlines, frontier airlines, hawaiian airlines, sky west airlines and spirit airlines. they have all agreed to terms, signed the letter of intent. this is part of the $25 billion pot under the cares act to bail out that industry. now, it does put certain restrictions on those airlines. they can't lay off workers until after october 1st and it limits some payouts to executives. the treasury secretary in this says the conversations with other airlines are continuing as they look forward to finalizing agreements with other airlines

down the pike. we can also tell you at least nine airlines have taken grant money so that's independent of the bailout. this is really to shore up that industry going forward but again, the headline, five major airlines, american, frontier, hawaiian, sky west and spirit, have signed letters of intent for that bailout money. back to you. ashley: all right. i'm sure they need it desperately. interesting stuff. edward, thank you very much. all right. now let's get back to that jobs report. 4.8 million jobs added in june. good time to bring in paul conway, former labor department chief of staff. paul, good morning. i guess my question to you first off is where do we stand on the recovery right now based on these latest numbers for june? >> i think we have had two good solid months, but i think the most important thing to keep in mind is we are at a delicate time, a pivot point. we are heading in the right direction, you are seeing reemployment or take-back of workers in all sectors which is very positive, and it goes back

to this bipartisan action that happened in the congress in support of the president's strategy which is work force protection and retention. i think that worked quite well. but as we head into july and august, i think there has to be a very very strong message on reopening the economy based on public health and encouraging people to exercise freedom and responsibility to make certain they are looking out for other americans to keep the momentum going. i think we are in a good position to keep it going that way. it's if we forget our responsibility for other folks we might run into a problem. ashley: very quickly, paul, does this mean, though, that the stimulus that's being talked about, phase four, i believe it is, do you still believe that's necessary? >> i think you are going to see some of that. i think that this concern that has been raised about folks staying home and not coming back to work because of disincentives, we have to have a fair discussion about that. i think it's a critical issue. the other thing we have to keep in mind is that there are over

100 million americans that have issues like asthma, diabetes, kidney disease, heart disease, who are concerned about the health aspect of return to work. that's why i think that elected officials at the federal level and state level have to be very very clear that they are supporting the entrepreneur and the business owner who is trying to open safely and that the tools of government are going to help that and not hinder it. i think that's critically important for messaging over the next 60 days to keep momentum going. ashley: all right. we have to move on. paul, thank you so much. appreciate your comments. president trump talking to blake burman, by the way, about the market. what would happen, he asked, if joe biden beats him in november. well, here's what the president answered. >> if he got elected, that's an overhang over the market because the market would crash. the people, the people around him are radical left. they are going to raise taxes, they are going to raise regulations and they are going to put everyone out of business. it would be a disaster.

ashley: the market would crash, it would be a disaster, says the president. let's bring in market watcher jonathan hoenig. jonathan, good morning to you. what do you think would happen to the markets if joe biden won the presidential election? >> well, the political season is heating up already. i just have to say look, no matter what side of the aisle you're on, happy fourth. we are still the most, no matter if you are republican or democrat, individualistic, capitalist, innovative country in history of the world and you have to be proud to be american. will the market crash? again, put the politics aside. look at the numbers. i'm just saying that if you look at the data from 1976, the markets have actually done better under a democrat. it's gone up an average of 14% versus about 10% under republicans. the president obviously has a big horse in this race but if you go by just the data alone, the market has actually done better under democrats. big spending, big tax democrats, than it has under republicans. ashley: talking about politics,

we are getting word that president trump will be holding a news conference at 9:30, just about 23 minutes from now. we'll have to wait and see whether that happens but that is the latest word. we could be hearing from the president at the bottom of the hour. let's talk about big tech. they carried the load for so long. the four stocks on your screen, we have amazon, microsoft, netflix, tesla, all of them finishing in record territory yesterday once again. any of these stocks, buy at these levels? that's the question. >> if the market is going to crash, as the president predicts, it is going to be, in my opinion, these stocks that are leading the way down. look, they are all at all-time highs and as the old saying goes, there are no tops in a bull market. but there are metaphors here going back to other market peaks in which the market becomes concentrated in just a few names. all of these names, they are the dominant part of the stock

indices and they are extremely expensive. netflix is over 40 times earnings, amazon is something over 100 times earnings. so if i had these stocks as winners in my portfolio, i wouldn't sell them but if i was putting new money to work, i would look at commodities, emerging markets, areas that haven't yet been taken up that offer a lot more value, in my opinion. ashley: all right. very good. jonathan, as always, thank you very much. let's stay on big tech and check apple. let's bring in susan li. susan, they are closing more stores, right, because of the virus. susan: 30 more stores closing today, and half will be in california. the other half will be in georgia, louisiana, nevada, oklahoma, idaho, alabama. yesterday, apple also closing another 16 stores in texas, florida, mississippi and utah. that brings the number of total reclosed stores to 77 across the country and apple operates around 271 across the u.s. only recently reopening them. most of them still only dropoff

and pickup service. companies are in a tough spot, like apple, trying to reopen in order to get business back up and running, to recoup some of their profits but then having to reshut for safety concerns with another record spike in some cases, in some states, right? ashley: right. that's the number of stores closed certainly going up. i want to talk about mcdonald's quickly putting off plans to reopen their dining rooms. susan: yes. golden arches, mcdonald's says they will wait three weeks before any u.s. restaurants add dine-in service to drive-through, takeout and delivery options they currently have operating so around 2,000 of the 14,000 mcdonald's across the country are now allowing customers to eat their meals inside. that will probably pause for a bit. those mcdonald operators only began, by the way, offering this limited dine-in service in may. but it stipulates only as state laws allow. new york city as we reported yesterday, joining new jersey delaying the restart of indoor dining at restaurants. california also ordering 19 counties to stop allowing these

indoor dining and recreation spots, at least for three weeks. mcdonald's by the way is in a tough spot as well, managing to recover some of their u.s. sales because of the drive-throughs and pickup, but the chain has said that, you know, these coronavirus spikes in some of these specific states will obviously hamper some of their restaurant businesses and those franchisee licensing fees. ashley: yeah, they have to play it safe. susan, thank you very much. let's take a look at the stock market on this jobs thursday. boy, a good jobs report. the dow up 433 points, s&p and nasdaq also up over 1%. take a look at the white house, where president trump will hold a spirit of america showcase later today. he's also expected to speak at that event which will be happening during our 11:00 hour. we may be hearing from the president at 9:30 as well, probably on this latest jobs report. we have to wait and see. also still to come next hour, national economic council director larry kudlow will join us with his reaction to this

morning's jobs report. i have a feeling he's going to be happy. we are also a little more than four months away, by the way, from the election and joe biden is raising more money than president trump. so what does the trump campaign have to say about that? we will ask them next. ♪ you doing okay?

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now that's simple, easy, awesome. transfer your service in minutes, making moving with xfinity a breeze. visit xfinity.com/moving today. ashley: ladies and gentlemen, we've got a new tweet from the president, who says quote, news conference at 9:30. great jobs numbers. there you have it. and of course, we will bring that right to you as soon as that happens. but now this.

>> i'm all for masks. i think masks are good. if i were in a group of people and i was close -- reporter: you would wear one? >> i would -- i have. i mean, people have seen me wearing one. if i'm in a group of people where we're not, you know, 10 feet away, but usually i'm not in that position and everyone's tested because i'm the president, they get tested before they see me but if i were in a tight situation with people, i would absolutely -- ashley: there you have it. president trump apparently all in on wearing masks. if he's in a tight situation as he told our blake burman right there. blake, great interview. what else was on the president's mind? reporter: well, we also talked about phase four relief measures and what might come of that, ashley, which i think will be questions that will be put to the president at this 9:30 news conference where we believe he will tout the jobs number. but the president told me last night that he is for another round of direct payments and that he was going to be discussing with mitch mcconnell

what the uninsurance benefits should look like in the next round of phase four relief. watch here. another round of direct payments for individuals. do you support that at this time? >> i do. i support it but it has to be done properly and i support actually larger numbers than the democrats but it's got to be done properly. reporter: the uninsurance benefits, mitch mcconnell yesterday signaled his support for an extension. the $600 figure, do you agree with that number, do you think it should be less? >> we are getting together, we are going to meet tonight and we're going to make a determination but it's going to be a good number, a substantial number. people are going to be very happy. reporter: of course we are trying to track down exactly what might have come from that meeting last night but with this jobs report this morning, and with the comments that the president told us last night or yesterday, rather, about the need for direct payments and touting the possibility of uninsurance benefits, you might have i think some conservatives, some republicans come out and

say why do we need another multi-trillion dollar package considering the jobs situation that we have just been given. of course, you are likely to hear democrats say today unemployment is still at 11%, a staggering and eye-popping number any way you split it. it's the exact reason why we need another phase four relief measure. in any event, the president signaling to me there that he is for several measures going forward. ashley? ashley: he is indeed. great stuff. thank you very much. now's a good time to bring in ee erin perrine from the trump campaign. let's begin there. will the president wear a mask at mt. rushmore tomorrow, do you know? >> i can't speak directly to whether or not that will happen but president trump has been clear he's all in for the american public to wear masks, especially when they are in close proximity to others. that's right in line with the cdc guidelines. president trump and those around him are regularly tested so he knows that he works within a

different environment where the risks are much lower. so he has said he likes wearing a mask, he thinks he looks like the lone ranger in it, so i mean, the president is right, americans should be all in for masks. ashley: would that give a boost to the campaign, though, because his critics say he's cavalier when it comes to this stuff? you think it could be a good campaign move to wear a mask? >> we on the campaign actually do regularly wear masks, in the office when we were at the rally in tulsa you saw staff wearing masks. we are following the cdc guidelines. we are following local regulations which is what the president has been saying the entire time that every american should be doing. ashley: all right. let's move on. want to talk about some campaign cash, if we can. joe biden had a record month and a quarter as far as fund-raising goes, completely outpacing the president. biden himself raising around $141 million for the month. compare that to $131 million for

your campaign. these are still massive numbers, don't get me wrong. but it's interesting that joe biden has the edge here. what's your reaction to that? >> joe biden does not have the edge at all in any way, shape or form, whether it's liquidity or fund-raising dollars. we have $275 million cash on hand bringing in $266 million in the second quarter with 131 of that being in june. we had our single best fund-raising day with $14 million in june on the president's birthday and this is a really interesting stat. even if joe biden's team because we bring in an average of 4.3 million a day in enthusiastic support for president trump, he would have to raise almost 5.5 million a day to try to get where we are on this campaign. that enthusiasm doesn't exist for joe biden, certainly not in the way it does for president trump. we've got the resources, we've got the infrastructure and we certainly have the candidate to win in november.

ashley: we had a very very encouraging jobs report for the month of june just came out, erin. is that something you are expecting the president to be touting when he holds a news conference in about nine minutes from now? >> absolutely. 4.8 million jobs? the only other time we have seen that kind of figure which is a new record-breaking number of jobs in one month, was last month when president trump broke the record with over two and a half million jobs which was revised upward to around three million. this is what we are talking about when we talk about make america great again. keep america great and the great american comeback. we are talking about the economic infrastructure that president trump built in the first three and a half years of his administration, tax cuts, deregulation, opportunity zones and you are seeing as we had to artificially disrupt the strongest economy this world has ever seen to save lives from the coronavirus, as we begin to reopen, as america begins to begin its comeback, we will do

so in an absolutely skyrocketing fashion because that's the way president trump has built this economy. only upwards from here with president trump at the helm. joe biden could undo absolutely all of this in his disastrous tax raising, job killing policies. ashley: have to leave it there. erin, thank you so much for joining us. by the way, we are moments away from the opening bell on wall street. again, a live look at the white house, where president trump will be holding a news conference on that blockbuster june jobs report. that will be at 9:30 a.m. eastern. about seven minutes from now. stay right there. we will bring it to you live. ♪ ♪ ♪ yeah

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ashley: all right. moments from now, president trump will be holding a press briefing right there on the other side of the screen at the white house. when that happens, of course, we will take you there. this is likely to be all about the big jobs number, 4.8 million jobs added. pretty darned good. we were expecting about three million. the unemployment rate coming down to 11.1%. manufacturing adding 356,000

jobs. a lot of positives. let's bring in todd piro, joining us for two hours through the 11:00 hour. great to have you, todd. i know you have traveled with the president. you know him pretty well. what are we going to expect to hear from him? i would imagine this is a time to take a bit of a victory lap. >> you stole the words literally right out of my mouth. i was going to say victory lap and you took it. honestly, in a situation like the president's in, whether you believe in the polling or you don't believe in the polling, there are enough people talking about the polls that are not favorable to the president that he needs to change the narrative and you know as sure as i do, this election is going to come down to one or two things. if it's one, it's economy. if it's two things it's economy and safety. right now the president has a great opportunity to say hey, look, economy, we are on the way up and he's totally going to take that in about two minutes or so from now. ashley: susan li, this is interesting.

the way the markets have reacted, a really big boost. of course, we are not open yet. couple of minutes to go. but this is the kind of news just going into a long weekend that makes investors ponder. susan: well, it is important to note that it is a long weekend so we might have these gains actually capped because nobody wants to hold cash and risk and yes, stocks are considered more risky than bonds heading into a long weekend but you have to really play off these strong jobs numbers so we have unemployment down to 11%. you had more jobs added at 4.8 million. the only concern i have, if you look at the jobless claims for the week, is that continuing claims which are those that are on long-term unemployment benefits, actually went up, slightly up in the week to closer to 19.2 million. those people that are still on unemployment, they might be encouraged to do that because there are such generous unemployment benefits at $600 extra per week which will end soon, this summer, but i think you have to take a look at the top line numbers and people getting back to work, businesses

reopening, like i mentioned to you, apple, mcdonald's and macy's. ashley: absolutely right. let's, as they clap away on wall street, as we get this holiday-shortened week under way, it's been a remarkable week. the nasdaq yesterday closing in record territory. these markets just want to go higher. that is the bottom line. as we start the day of trading, boom, the dow up 370 points. good for close to a 1.5% gain. there's the dow 30, all in the green, being led by boeing, american express, travelers, goldman, you name it. every one of those stocks on the dow 30 are moving higher. let's take a look at the s&p, if we can. i would imagine lots of gains there. yes, up over a percent on the s&p. 3152, another gain of 36 points. let's look at the record-breaking nasdaq. the index that has those big tech stocks that have done so much of the leading for quite

some time. the nasdaq up another 114 points at 10,269 on the nasdaq. let's check the airlines quickly, if we can. five of them as we heard from edward lawrence earlier this morning, tapping into the treasury's loan program. that will help the airlines in this up market, moving nicely. american, delta, jetblue, southwest, united, all up anywhere 2%, 3% or 4%. do we have d.r. barton with us? i wanted to ask d.r. a quick question here. we just seem to want to go higher, d.r. now we get this news. at what point do stocks perhaps look a little expensive? >> well, i don't think they look expensive for a long way from here, ashley. i don't think in absence of any good china -- negative china news, i don't think for the next couple of weeks there's a lot to slow us down. negative coronavirus data is

being offset by lower fatality rates, lower mortality rates and that combined has the market going up. ashley: very good. let's check tesla. i saw this number come down today, their deliveries in their latest quarter was 90,000 plus. remarkab remarkable. susan, sorry, i just gave that away. how many cars did they deliver exactly? how many exactly? susan: take that 90,000 delivery vehicle number really into context because that's way better than forecast. even the most bullish forecast was looking for deliveries of just around 83,000. the average was 72,000, 83,000. 90,000, way above that. that's why the stock is at yet another record high. don't forget, tesla was below $200 just in may of last year. if you bought it, you would have been very very happy. this delivery number, by the way, is so impressive in the second quarter because fremont, which is their only u.s. production facility in california, was shut for half the time.

so we had 80,000 of these model 3s out of the 90,000 that were sold and china really picked up a lot of the slack as well. yes, tesla did have to cut prices to entice people to buy in china and the u.s. during the quarter, but still, the fact that people were actually taking them up on that offer i think bodes very well for the company and shows the amount of interest out there. also, dlieliveries down 5 pert% quarter, compared to fiat, general motors and ford, which had deliveries down 30% to 50%. you can make the case tesla is doing a lot better than others. by the way, now the most valuable car company on the planet. surpassing toyota but only, by the way, 29 times less sales than toyota at those valuations. ashley: wow. sorry to jump in there. i wanted to ask todd whether he has a tesla. he strikes me as the kind of cool guy that might turn up in a tesla. >> unfortunately for you and i, living here in the great nutmeg

state of connecticut, we cannot buy teslas at this point in time. if you want one, you got to go across the river or something to new york or jersey and get it there. imagine how huge these numbers would be if you and i here in connecticut could buy teslas. they would be so much bigger. with the money in fairfield county. they want those cars. ashley: yeah. they certainly do. very good point. d.r., let me bring you back in. as we know, tesla on a tear. are you buying them at this level, $1215? >> i don't think i like buying this breakout. i think i am a buyer on pullbacks, though, because susan hit one of the key points. they are only down 5%, 4.3% over this time where ford, a lot of other companies are 30%, 40%, 50% down. we are seeing tesla being branded not only as a car delivery company. they are ramping up those deliveries. you and i talked about that.

we have had onscreen bets about tesla missing deliveries before. now they are doing much better and we are seeing them as a technology company. i think buying pullbacks on tesla is a possibility. don't love them at $1250. would love to get back in at say $1,000, $900 and keep riding it up. ashley: jonathan hoenig back with us. jonathan, great to have you. where are the bargains right now? do you see any out there? >> i do, and they are tremendously unsexy parts of the market. parts of the market in many cases that are doing well but not getting a lot of attention. right here on "varney & company" for the better part of the last year, we have been talking about gold. it's not far off from its all-time high, multi-year high. i think that's one area. commodities in general, you know, no matter what side of the political aisle you sit on, it's a fact the federal reserve has been printing literally trillions, creating it out of thin air, that funneled its way into a lot of prices, particularly stock prices --

ashley: have to hold it there. we see the president. let's listen in. >> -- and we have steve mnuchin with us, larry kudlow. i'd like to just announce the spectacular news for american workers and american families and for our country as a whole. there's not been anything like this, record-setting. it was just put out that the united states economy added almost five million jobs in the month of june, shattering all expectatio expectations. i was watching this morning. expectations were much lower than that. the stock market is doing extremely well which means to me jobs. that's what it means, jobs. it's the largest monthly jobs gain in the history of our count country. the unemployment rate fell by more than two percentage points, down to just about 11%. we are down to the 11% number. we started at a number very much

higher than that. as you know, we broke the record last month and we broke it again this month in an even bigger way. this news comes on top of may's extraordinary jobs report which was revised upwards, by the way, to 2.7 million jobs. it was 2.5, that was last month, and that was a record setter. but it actually got a little bit better. we revised it. it was revised upward to 2.7 million jobs. for a combined total of 7.5 million jobs created in the last two months and that's a record by many millions of jobs so it's 7.5 million jobs created in the last two months alone. today's announcement proves that our economy is roaring back, it's coming back extremely strong. we have some areas where we're putting out the flames or the fires and that's working out well. we're working very closely with governors and i think it's working out very well. i think you'll see that shortly.

in june, we added 2.1 million leisure and hospitality jobs, 740,000 retail jobs, 568,000 education and health care jobs, 357,000 service jobs. these are all historic numbers. and 356,000 manufacturing jobs, and manufacturing looks like it's ready to really take off at a level that it's never been before and a lot of that las to do with our trade policy because we are bringing manufacturing back to our country and these take a long time to get -- to get going and they're now going. so these are historic numbers. i'm really happy when i see 356,000 manufacturing jobs and that's just a small number compared to what it will be soon because of our great trade deals. african-american workers really happily for me made historic gains, with 404,000 jobs added last month alone and that's a

record, and the second largest jump will be last month and what we have, if you add the two months together, it's 700,000 jobs for african-american workers added in the last two months and that's a record by a lot. likewise, hispanic employment is up by 1.5 million jobs. a record by a lot. hispanic employment up 1.5 million jobs. three million more women were employed in the month of june. a record. never had a number like that. workers with a high school education or less made the biggest strides of all so people that have just a high school education or have less than a high school education, with unemployment, those without a high school diploma dropped a full 3.3 percentage points.

that's the largest drop in recorded history. 80% of small businesses are now open, 80%, and we think we're going to have some very good numbers in the coming months because others are opening and especially as we put the flame out getting rid of the flame. it's happening. new business applications have doubled since late march. that's a number that is not even thinkable to achieve this early into a pandemic. the latest ism manufacturing report rose 10 percentage points with new orders jumping a remarkable 25 percentage points, all a record. consumer confidence which is great, that's a great number to me, because that means confidence is really good. if you don't have good consumer confidence, it's like life. if you don't have confidence, you're not going to do very well.

consumer confidence has risen 12 points since april and six-month job expectations hit the all time, an all-time high. so think of that for a second. with all we go through, with all of the trials and tribulations that we read about every night, much of it totally fake news, fortunately, and if the consumer didn't get it, you wouldn't have good consumer confidence. we have consumer confidence has risen 12 points since april, an all time high. think of that. retail sales surged an astonishing 18% so retail sales went up an astonishing 18% in may. that's the largest increase in the history of our country. that's a tremendous number. 18%. the number of -- what it means to me is jobs. the number of unemployed americans re-entering the labor

force rose by 43%. fewer workers are dropping out of the labor force than before. and the crisis is being handled. you know, if you look, we were talking this morning, something to think about, china was way early and they are getting under control just now and europe was way early and they are getting under control. we followed them with this terrible china virus, and we are likewise getting under control. some areas are very hard-hit, are now doing very well. some were doing very well and we thought they may be gone and they flare up and we're putting out the fires. but other places were long before us and they are now -- it's a life, it's got a life, and we are putting out that life because that's a bad life that we are talking about.

but all of this suggests that workers are confident about finding a new job. the stock market is soaring, with the best gains in over 20 years. in the second quarter, the dow jones increased 18%. this is in a quarter. these are not numbers that people have heard about. it's the best in 33 years. the s&p 500 increased by almost 20%, the best since 1998, the quarter. and nasdaq increased over 30%, the best since 1999. we had a 50-month, if you look over a long period of time, a phenomenal number but if you look since the election, we have gone up, the dow went up close to 45%, the s&p 500 went up 47%

and nasdaq composite went up getting close to 100%. so these are numbers that are not numbers that other presidents would have. they won't have it. the only thing they can kill it is a bad president or a president that wants to raise taxes. you want to raise taxes, this whole thing, your 401(k)s will drop down to nothing and your stock market will drop down to nothing. this is not just luck, what's happening. this is a lot of talent. all of this incredible news is the result of historic actions my administration has taken working with our partners in congress to rescue the u.s. economy from a horrible event that was formed, took place in china and came here, and they could have stopped it. they could have stopped it. nobody likes to write that but they could have stopped it. they know it and i know it. three the paycheck protection program, we have extended over

$520 billion in loans to nearly five million small businesses, saving and supporting the jobs of tens of millions of american workers. this has been a tremendous success. levels that nobody's ever seen before. but we saved all of those jobs and all of those small businesses, and some will be large businesses soon, perhaps. we also rushed urgently needed relief to millions and millions of hard-working taxpayers. they got that directly and we are working on a phase four, we are working with congress. that work has started. steve mnuchin can give you a little briefing, talking about payroll tax cuts, talking about more money being infused, and it comes back to us. it comes back. it's all coming back. it's coming back faster, bigger and better than we ever thought possible. these are the numbers. these are not numbers made up by me. these are numbers. we have implemented an aggressive strategy to vanquish

and kill the virus and protect americans at the highest risk while allowing those at lower risk to return safely to work. that's what's happening. our health experts continue to address the temporary hot spots in certain cities and counties and we are working very hard on that. the relationship with the governors is very good. we made a call, mike pence made a call just yesterday and said what do you need. not one governor needed anything. they don't need anything. they have all the medical equipment they can have. thank you, u.s. government. they have all of the ventilators, they have, you know, we are giving many ventilators and selling in some cases and giving when needed but we're the ventilator king. we're now producing thousands of ventilators, thousands of ventilators a week and we're helping other countries and other countries are desperately

in need of ventilators because this is now at 189 countries. it changes all the time, that number. 189 countries and many of them don't have money and almost all of them don't have the capacity to build a ventilator which is hard to build, very complex, very expensive, very big in many cases. we have done an incredible job. so we have assembly lines building ventilators and we are building thousands a week. all of these people are working with governors and local officials to restore best practices and that's what we've done. that includes face coverings, social distancing, testing and personal hygiene, wash your hands. state officials will decide how rapidly to open their economies. that's largely up to them. if we see something that's egregious, we've gotten involved with a couple of them where we thought it was unfair, we would like to see churches opened quickly and some of them just don't want to do that. in new york we got a great

ruling from a judge, thank you, judge, that they can open. if these best practices are implemented, then the hot spots can be calmed quickly and we understand this horrible disease right now. we didn't understand the disease at all. we did the right thing, we closed it up. we would have lost millions of lives. we have done a historic thing. we would have lost millions of lives. and now we're opening it up and it's opening up far faster than anybody thought even possible and more sfublgly. as i said, you are going to have a fantastic third quarter. it will be a third quarter the likes of which nobody has ever seen before, in my opinion. and the good thing is the numbers will be coming out just prior to the election so people will be able to see those numbers. the fourth quarter likewise will be extremely good and maybe most importantly, from the standpoint of our country itself, next year will be a historic year. next year is going to be an incredible year for jobs, for companies, for growth. things are happening like nobody

would have thought possible. i do want to comment, boeing as you know is moving along in their process. it's been a very hard process, a very complicated progress -- process, but they have made tremendous, tremendous gains and they are going for approvals on the aircraft, the 737 max. they are also starting to do some real business so i just want to congratulate boeing. they have been through so much. i think it was probably the greatest company in the world. i used to say it was the greatest company in the world and then it ran through a very tough period of time. but i just want to say that boeing has made tremendous progress in a short period of time. and other companies, i don't even have to talk about because they are all setting records, every one, virtually every one of our great companies are setting records. so i want to thank everybody for being here today. these are historic numbers in a time that a lot of people would

have wilted. they would have wilted. but we didn't wilt and our country didn't wilt and i'm very honored to be your president. thank you very much. thank you. reporter: [ inaudible ]. ashley: there you have it. that was the president of the united states covering a lot of ground. it was a victory lap. talking about the june jobs report, calling it spectacular news. he said close to five million jobs created. let's listen in to treasury secretary steve mnuchin. >> i think as you know, people thought we would have 30 million people unemployed. fortunately, we never got to that. so eight million jobs back but our work is not done. our work won't be done until every single american who lost their job because of covid gets back to work. and there's no question i want to thank the senate and the house for working with us. there's no question these programs are working. i also want to thank them for

extending the ppp. as i've said, it's our priority when we get to the cares 4 bill in july, we will look to work with the house and senate on a bipartisan basis to repurpose that money. we have about $130 billion left. there are going to be a number of businesses that are particularly hard-hit and we'll be looking to give those businesses additional money. so cares 4 will be much more targeted for the businesses that continued in need of work but there is no question that this is working. and we look forward to continuing this progress. again, i think eight million jobs really extraordinary. let me just make one other comment. director kudlow and i are not wearing masks up here because we have both been tested this morning. okay? that's the only reason. but even with that, we did social distance so i'm pleased to see you are all wearing masks. i will let director kudlow make a few comments. then we will both be happy to take questions. >> thanks, steve.

just briefly, underscoring these high frequency indicators. it's a difficult thing to do. we haven't had much experience with these pandemics but i will say this. the apple mobility index is a very important index. it's literally a realtime daily indicator and we are not seeing any declines. it's still strengthening even, i might add, in some of the southwestern states which have difficult hot spots. housing demand and housing surveys are just soaring. automobile demand now expected for the third quarter about ten million plus production units. the trucking surveys look very very strong. and the dallas fed survey, i don't recall if it was in the president's notes, because it's obviously in texas, a bad hot spot. the dallas fed survey which goes to the end of the month has not yet shown any decline. now, it may. i'm not going to rule that out. i would say as a general matter, these job numbers, as good as

they are, erasing a third to a half of those who are unemployed, there is still a lot of hardship and a lot of heartbreak in these numbers. i understand that. the economy is on its way back. we have a ways to go. i will, however, continue to reference the congressional budget office which is looking for a very strong third quarter and second half, and a number of private surveys and private forecasters who see the same story on the v-shaped recovery, and with good policies and leadership, 2021 can be a big bang year and we will be able to get back to the peak levels of 2019. so i believe we are well-positioned. i think we have a lot more work to do. i get that. and as steven mentioned, we will see how the policy discussions go later this month. thanks. reporter: mr. secretary, were you concerned to see new unemployment claims rising, we are at 1.4 million layoffs last

week and that number is actually going up, not going down. are you concerned about that? >> let me just say again, i want to just say we are going to be concerned until every single person is back to work. now, when you look at these numbers, i think it's tough enough to predict economic numbers in normal times. in these times, you have to look at all these numbers in the entirety. so what i would say on that is there's a lag on the unemployment claims. i think you also know many of these states, we said up front are completely backed up. no, i would focus on the jobs numbers are the most accurate numbers. the trend of eight million jobs back but having said that, i'm concerned until we get everybody back to work. reporter: obviously this is good news today. no question about it. but it's also obvious that the crisis that is surging through sun belt states, record number of cases nationally yesterday, threatens all of these economic gains. many states are throwing their

reopenings into reverse. what additional actions is the administration going to take to stop that, will the administration and will the president specifically call on americans to wear masks, and why don't we have rather than you guys celebrating good news that has already happened, why don't we have the coronavirus task force up here giving briefings on how to get under control what is obviously not under control, as anthony fauci said this week? >> well, let me just say, i am on the coronavirus task force so i'm happy to answer a few of those questions. i can't comment on the schedule of briefings. i'm not aware of that. the president specifically put in his speech encouraging americans to wear masks, social distance and hygiene, because he's the president of the united states and people are not around him close and the people who are around, are tested, i don't think he needs to wear a mask. but the rest of us absolutely,

and the president supports wearing masks. i was at the house this week testifying. i'm sure you saw my picture with chair powell on the "wall street journal." i never thought we would have a picture like that but yes, we are encouraging americans to wear masks. now, unlike last time, as i have said, and yes, i realize the numbers of cases, we are monitoring that carefully, we are monitoring the hospital capacity. let me just say i have been briefed on where we are on vaccines and virals. i'm very encouraged we will have things by the end of the year. so yes, we are going to be careful. i wouldn't say reverse. i would say the states appropriately are pausing certain things like bars and gyms, which obviously are the more contagious types of things and i think the states are acting appropriately. >> that reverse has been down in arizona and texas. they have put a team in play and cdc, is doing more of that. and what they're doing is working with local officials,

government officials but health officials to really re-emphasize what i call the list of best practices and i think that will do the trick. if you have to phase out, as steve said, if you phase out bars so be it for a few weeks. i think some places might have been overexuberant and now have to come back and get back to these best practices of distancing and masks and testing, and person small hygiene. reporter: larry, the president said a few minutes ago we're getting this under control. it is obvious to anyone watching it is not under control and anthony fauci said out loud this week. >> i think what dr. fauci said, if people don't take these thing seriously that the numbers could continue to spike. so -- reporter: they're spiking right now. >> again what i say the numbers are up. we're obviously watching this very carefully. we think that there is the right balance and working with the

states on the health issues and the economic issues. we'll go to the next question. reporter: mr. secretary there is record number of new infections every day. does the white house regret encouraging states to open as quickly as it did, do you think some of that backfired? >> no, absolutely not. we had a very careful plan, working with the states. this is primarilily the states responsibility but working with the states and again i think there is plenty of places, we can get people back to work safely. i can tell you in the treasury we'll take more people back. we're social distancing. we're checking people's temperature at times. there is a safe way to reopen the economy and we're going to do that carefully. reporter: worry about what will happen with schools in the fall for kids? there is a real economic argument without schools, a lot of the workforce can actually truly to return to work. what strategies are youing too

to employ here? >> we're working with schools and universities. in most cases schools will be able to open safely. some schools will need to spend money. one of the things we'll look at in cares four if we need to give money to schools to properly equip their areas, that is something that -- absolutely. we want to make sure that kids are safe. if there is money that schools need to spend to safely have people in classrooms, social distance, spread things out, change hours, these are all the things we're looking at. reporter: mr. secretary can you assess the current need for american families in face four bill? in the spring you said a very big number was needed. what is the current need? >> i think it is too early to tell. that is the reason why we're waiting. we spent unprecedented amount of money. we have authorization of three trillion dollars. that is an extraordinary amount of money. a lot of that money is not in

the economy yet. we're continuing. that is why we're extending the ppp before we go back to congress, i'm always having conversation with certain members, democrats and republicans to get ideas, we want to see economic numbers. people thought we would have 30 million people unemployed right now. of the fortunately we're about 15 million people unemployed. we had five million people unemployed before this we have 10 million people to put back to work. the president is committed to do what we need to do in the next bill to protect jobs, protect liability. yes, in the back. reporter: if you look at president's twitter feed last few days. he if military bases away from confederate generals and confederate statues, not wanting them to come down. we're in the middle of the pandemic. is the president more focused preserving or celebrating the

confederacy than getting pandemic under control? >> the president is focused on everything. this issue of statues and everything else is a complicated issue. theres was an op-ed in "the wall street journal" from the cardinal in new york about the bible and everybody other than mary and jesus christ. i think it's a complicated issue. we need to have a balanced view of history. reporter: white power video? >> we're here to talk about economics. we'll talk one more question. in the back. reporter: mr. secretary, why is the spending department spending stimulus checks? there was a lawsuit allowed to proceed. are you guys going to be doing that soon or leave it to the courts to decide whether the treasury department has to do it. >> i'm sorry i didn't understand the question. what is the question on stimulus checks? reporter: mixed status families. american citizen children. people who are married to

undocumented. >> our position is that legal americans, american citizens should get the payments. that's our focus. if people are here illegally, they're not going to get economic payments. let me just say, we're very focused on, as part of the next cares shacht we'll seriously consider whether we need to put more payments, direct payments overworked very well. thank you, everybody. reporter: how much state and local aid. how much aid for state and local governments? >> we'll consider that. ashley: there you have it. treasury secretary steve mnuchin, larry kudlow, the white house economic advisor. for that about 20 to 25 minutes we heard from the president of the united states saying that the economy is roaring back. so let's have a reset. so much to go at but let's start again at the top of the hour. i will tell you i am ashley webster in for stuart today. the markets right now on a tear. you can see the dow jones up 450

points. the nasdaq, s&p both up 1 1/2%. as i just mentioned we heard from the presidentth morning. take a listen. >> today's announcement proves our economy is roaring back, it is coming back extremely strong. we have some areas where we're putting out the flames or the fires. that is working out well. we'll working closely with governors and working out very well. i think you will see that shortly. ashley: coming up soon i will be speaking with the president's top white house economy guy, larry kudlow. you heard from him just briefly there he is still by the way, expecting a v-shaped recovery although he says he is. i will ask him what he bases that on. he will be a happy guy as was the administration over the june jobs report. the news by the way just keeps coming. we have very latest reading on mortgage rates. susan: something you live for each and every week. ashley: i do. susan: a blowout.

freddie mac reporting a record low mortgage rate of 30 year fixed, 3.07%. ashley: wow. susan: lowest in freddie mac's history, even for the 15 year fixed mortgage rate, averaging 2.56%. here is the stunner, that freddie mac's chief economist says there is a distinct possibility later on this year the 30 year fixed mortgage could go sub3%. if it does, imagine the amount of home buying it will spur on. great for the u.s. economy, homes. ashley: larry kudlow says housing demand is soaring. susan, stay with us. latest read on factory orders. susan: better than what it was in april for the month of may. we're looking 8%. which is slightly less than economists forecast calling for 8.9%. so may, you can see the benefits of reopening of multiple states across the country.

april was down 13 1/2%. this is recovery for the manufacturing floor and positive for the u.s. economy. ashley: all right. there you go, more fairly decent economic data. i still can't get over the fact we could still see a 30 year fixed mortgage under 3%. that would be remarkable. todd piro, still with us. god bless you. you heard some of the reporter questions. i was stunned by the questions to steve mnuchin, treasury secretary on the president's belief or thoughts about confederate statues. absolutely remarkable. we have all the economic data but of course, we get washington press corps saying so why is the president talking about the confederate statues. so have at it, todd. >> yeah. mnuchin was right to ignore those questions or sidestep those questions. that is not his lane. he is not supposed to do that. we need him for the money. if i am the campaign arm of the trump administration, if you will, i get that speech that he

just gave, i put it on a loop. here is the reason why. he stayed on the economic message. that is the only way he is going to win in 2020. here is some notes that i took of words that he really didn't go over. masks, monuments and media. yes, those three ms, appeal to his base but you only get one vote per person in the base. not like you get a bonus if more people in the base vote for you. he needs to get the people in the middle. another "m" word, he has to focus on the money. that is what that speech did. he mentioned 401(k). he mentioned retirement. for people on the fence, that is what they want to hear. this other stuff is just noise. ashley: you're absolutely right, todd. bring in pete hegseth. this to me was classic donald trump today on the campaign trail, touting this jobs report and hitting all those key points to todd's summation, you know. he said that the economy is roaring back. and middle of all of this, he

did say, so do you want to raise taxes? you want your 401(k)s to drop? you want the market to crash? i mean he really hit all these points that third quarter will be great. those numbers will be out just before the election. he was in full campaign mode. he played a lot of very good points. >> very much so. this is opportunity to remind voters what the economy looked like before he and we intentionally had to shut it down because of the virus that the communist chinese effectively allowed to spread around the world. so but in politics months is years and memory is not long. it is quick. so people forget how we really did have one of the best economies our country ever had, intentionally shut down. now numbers like this help revive that memory. the extent the president keeps touting that. you want the economy of the obama-biden administration, then elect the guy a part of it and wants to raise your taxes.

wants to crush the income industry. all of the things that helped the renaissance we have today. to todd's point, we'll be talking about masks. we'll be talking about monuments. we'll be talking about media. do doubt about that. culture is front and center in the clash we have right now. to the extent the conversation is president money and economy being revived is a good day for the president. ashley: he also, pete, pointed out, and this is important measure i believe, african-american workers 700,000 jobs created in two months. hispanic jobs 1 1/2 million jobs. women workers, 3 million jobs. key demographics for the president. the numbers don't lie. >> no, they don't. the hope is, listen we've been through this whole moment the last six weeks or so after george floyd and there is a conversation, more than a conversation being had. if he can cut through that, react to it, then remind the black community and others that

his administration made them a priority, provided the economic up lift that they deserve. looked at funding of colleges and criminal justice reform and investment zones, all of those things, but he has to be able to cut through it. we'll see. it is a marathon until we get to election day right now. ashley: absolutely is. message something critical. let's bring in market watcher david kelly if we can. david, spectacular jobs report. stronger than expected. markets reacting. the markets have been wanting to go higher anyway. this economic data is critical to psyche of investors. one way to go now, up. >> yeah, but i am a little nervous where the market is right now. ashley: oh? >> we strong v-shaped recovery from extraordinary low. we lost 21 million jobs. got 7 1/2 million back. basically a third of the way

back. very fast highway coming back so far but when i look at the progress in the next few quarters you see slower traffic ahead because this virus has grown again. the problem, what has happened so far the companies that could reopen, that can operate in a pandemic environment have done so. i give a lot of credit to people adapted to doing so. the let's of stuffing people into airplanes, stuffing people into hotels, restaurants, you just can't do that safely in a pandemic environment. we're still in a situation we have to control the pandemic to get economy back in full recovery. great to see this much of a recovery. first part of the v. unless we get detoured on the side roads. it will be slower going. a real battle getting economy back to work but really to do that you've got to control the pandemic. you can't take half steps. you have to be very firm. we have to get case numbers down. ashley: well the cbo, the congressional budget office, is

predicting a strong second half and even improved third quarter. you saying that is a little optimistic? >> no, i think that's right but again it is like trumping off a cliff on the trampoline the bounce is impressive but the fall is very important. but as serious matter, the way we look at it we'll be down 35, 40% of real gdp in the second quarter. we'll bounce that 25% or so. that means it would be the fourth quarter of 2021 by the time gdp back to where it was, fourth quarter, 2019. it is a plunge, bounce, a crawl. the speed which we recover from here on out, depends on the ability determined as a people to crush the virus, and be disciplined in doing so. ashley: i still figure that image, david of jumping off a cliff on to a trampoline, i get your point. quite effective. thank you. pete hegseth, come back in. we are heading, pete, into the

holiday weekend and the president is slipping in the polls. i mean all the polls we've seen has joe biden ahead. do you put much store in those polls and what does the president have to do? we talked about messaging earlier? >> no, i don't put stocks in the polls. most of them are national polls. most oversample democrats including our own poll fox news which was also wrong four years ago at this point in june. if i'm president team, i look at battleground swing state polls. their internals are showing a much closer race. it is middle of the summer. it is a difficult stretch. you have covid-19 uncertainty and economy on the rebound. listen, we're in the middle of a cultural civil clash in our country. he is standing for america and monuments and mount rushmore where he will be for the 4th of july. that is a good place to be as well as standing with the blitz to bring the economy back. that will be a contrast election.

the question how clear can he get his message out with the media entirely against him. ashley: that is a very good point. we know where the media stands on all that. thank you, so much. as you mentioned the president on the move today. thank you, pete. we heard from the president about an hour ago or half an hour ago. we'll also be hearing again from him at 11:30 today. the president will be holding a spirit of america showcase at the white house. when he speaks, of course you will see it right here. but first i'm going to be speaking with national economic council director larry kudlow on this morning a es jobs report and if we can still expect a v-shaped recovery. the second hour of "varney & company" just getting started. 49... 50!

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those are well and good will

impact the market. often times a positive in one of those areas, a negative is buoyed by negative in one area. stocks go down a little bit but not necessarily the whole market. i talked to a number of people, said, look if it looks like biden is going to win, in fact he does win, i'm taking everything out of the market. if that happens, with not only institutional or individual traders but also institutional traders, that is what is going to send this market down. again to my point i made about ten minutes earlier. that is why the president needs to tout his economic message versus biden, make that point, that biden winning is what is going to take the market in his opinion. ashley: he did just that, very strongly earlier this morning. good point, todd piro. thank you, todd. get back to talk about the coronavirus. in florida in particular cases are spiking to the tune of just over 6500 new cases as of july 1st. that was just reported

yesterday. of course we are talking about this before, but in miami beach, if you are caught outside without wearing a mask, that is 50 bucks out of your pocket. that is the fine. so let's bring in dan gelber, mayor of miami beach. your honor, thank you for being here. how are you, i guess the question always becomes, how do you enforce this rule? >> well, that is a good question. you know most of the mask rules relate to emergency orders and those are typically criminal violations. so we didn't want to arrest people for failure to wear a mask. that is not just practical and frankly, we don't want to do that. so the actual crime is something we thought was little bit more -- [inaudible]. more than that, the moment you implement something, just like with seatbelts, the moment the legislature in florida, the moment we made seatbelts mandatory, people immediately begin to do it because of the law. so we'll get a lot of compliance

because it is mandatory before we even -- [inaudible] there will be people who won't comply but more people complying. that is our point. to get more people following guidelines. ashley: who are the biggest offenders? is it the young folks as we like to say, congregating in areas around the beach, bars, so on? is that the audience you're trying toe target in particular? >> well it is, they're the worst right now. we just got a report this morning, a majority are coming literally under the age of 35. you know, we know why. i have college age daughters. i know they are vulnerable and they want to socialize. our city is sort of built for that, typically those kinds of gatherings so we have to be very careful, most in the county, are many coming through our city because it's a destination city

and these young people have to understand that they're putting so much virus into the community it is just hard to cabinet in the right ways a way from people who can really suffer. many of them are going into the hospital. not like they are immune from the devastating impact from this virus. ashley: yeah. the point being is that even if they are immune, they can indeed be a carrier to those, who are so much more vulnerable, including perhaps members of their own family. >> right, right. ashley: well, by the way, very quickly, mayor, the miami beach is closed, is it not, for the holiday weekend? >> our beaches are closed on july 4th. we're requiring masks. i was thinking about that as i write my july fourth message to the community. it is a holiday that celebrates

freed tops and independence and we have constraints and guidelines but on the other hand where we celebrate our community. maybe as a community we can get together say, let's do this for each other. that has been part of the american spirit, helping neighbors, helping people you don't know. that is what has to guide us. that spirit of we're in this together. let's do it. ashley: right. very good. we'll leave you right there. mayor, thank you so much. have a great 4th of july weekend. thank you for taking time to join us. thank you very much. let's get back to apple, susan. why not. apparently they shelled out a lot of cash for will smith's latest flick, right? susan: $105 million. this is a lot of change after intense bidding war for this movie called emancipation. this is period drama that will star will smith. this is directed by "training day" director antwan

fuqua. they nabbed martin scorsese's next film. and tom hangs's period drama, called "greyhound." it is content arms war when it comes to streaming. apple will spend $4 billion a year to make original content for apple tv plus. netflix spends 13 to $15 billion a year on their original content disney plus levers off disney tv shows. it gets from the parent company. you have to understand in order to get subscribers and eyeballs you need compelling content. in order to do that apparently you have to spend big. ashley: yeah. we need to start writing scripts, providing content. that is where the real money is, susan. susan: that's right. ashley: you got it. stay right there, everybody. guess what? larry kudlow is coming up next

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the dow above 26,000. by the way the president out front and early on that jobs report. roll tape. >> that you're going to have a fantastic third quarter. it will be a third quarter in the likes of nobody has ever seen before in my opinion. the numbers come out just prior to the election. so people will be able to see those numbers. the fourth quarter likewise will be extremely good. maybe most importantly from the standpoint of our country, next year we'll be a historic year. ashley: strong words from the president after that jobs report. momentarily we will be speaking to chief economic advisor larry kudlow so stay tuned for that. but first we have breaking news on food delivery giants postmates. jackie deangelis with us, jackie, they're going public, right? reporter: i've been following this one closely. the latest news we had reports that there would be, uber was making a offer to buy postmates

for 2.6 billion. now a source close to the situation tells me they are indeed planning to file their s-1. that is the paperwork to go public. it would be a nasdaq listing, ashley, unthe ticker m-a-t-e, mate. they're still fielding talks from possible acquirers. as they are doing this, you have to sit back and think this has to be about valuation. late last year they were raising money. the valuation seemed to be around 2.4 billion. offer of uber of 2.6 that they're probably opting for even more. jake fuller, analyst wrote about that, he says the valuation could be as high as 3.9 billion. seems to me postmates are not settling for less than they're worth. we'll go it alone on the nasdaq. they will file early next week. that is what the source tells

me. ashley: interesting, jackie. sending a little message to uber. good stuff, jackie deangelis. by the way as we continue to wait for larry kudlow on the blockbuster jobs report, 4.million jobs added in june, more than expected. bring in economist peter morici. what does this number tell us, are we out of the woods or on our way out of the woods? >> we're on our way out of woods. this is extraordinary number. i don't want to downplay its importance. i would point out we picked up one 1/2 million people net that are permanently unemployed. that is going to be the tough part of completing the v around getting all the way up. that will become more of an issue as we get into the fourth quarter and first quarter of next year but the most difficult aspect of things will be getting people fully employed again. and that's because some industries are permanently contracted. so the treasury secretary is correct to say we need focused

relief in the fourth package and i will be very interested to see what he comes up with. ashley: what was the standout here for you? there was a lot there. you could argue that the leisure and hospitality industry plus retail accounted for, you know, well over two million of the jobs. the question is, can that be repeated in july and onwards? >> leisure and hospitality certainly was a very important number. and it indicates that people are starting to travel again and finding ways to do it. however we can't expect that hotels are going to be absolutely again as they were in the past because of the airline situation. american airlines seems to be willing to put people cheek to jowl again but others not. the manufacturing numbers are particularly impressive. the president honed in on that in his comments. there we need to see if we can complete the repair of supply chains and we can make the factories so that the workers

feel absolutely safe. i think that it is possible with a fourth package to shore up demand enough, that there will be enough to pull through to wh, what we make and what we consume will be somewhat different afterwards. the sam -- example, thinking i theaters had their days numbered. you can buy projectors to put on your table in a living room and throw up on the screen that replicates a movie theater. they are not cumbersome. this coronavirus puts people over the edge. they will go out to buy the contraptions. they cost several thousand dollars. they won't pay $15 a week to go to the movies. the bicycle riding is up amazingly. we will use gyms less but have pendletons at home.

we need to make new adjustments to new areas of employment to accommodate this. the administration actually has a lot of apparatus in place before the crisis. for example, its apprenticeship program, could be put to work, built out for that purpose. i would like to hear more about that from the administration. ashley: very quickly, peter, i literally got 20 seconds, should more direct payments be sent out to individuals, more, you know, 1200 that the democrats wanted? should more direct money be sent out or is that disincentive to work? >> direct payments to households are not disincentive to work. i would be in favor of monthly payments until the unemployment rate is at some target level and continued job benefits to reduced levels. overall a jobless person is getting reasonable amount of money, but they don't lose as much if they go back to work. in new zealand they took that approach and it worked very, very well. we have a longer slog than new

england. we're not an island country. but my feeling is, once we have a vaccine, we keep demand going, focus on payments to households with, not going to be as large as unemployment payments but somewhat smaller payments to unemployed they will be happy to switch to being employed and this will get us through. ashley: very good. i will put that to larry kudlow when he comes up. peter morici. we appreciate your time. quick check on the market. we're still up 1% on the dow. same story on the s&p and nasdaq. happening next hour we should let you know the president will be holding a spirit of america showcase at the white house. when he speaks there, of course we'll take you there live, but first, larry kudlow, live and in person, i promise, next

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♪. ashley: well as promised and advertised, joining us now, larry kudlow, white house top economic guy. that's his title. larry, president trump says there will be a new payment of 1200 bucks or at least something like that. is this going to happen before the election? how vital is it to get more money out to the people that need it at this stage of the recovery? >> well i think it is certainly on the table and i think it could be very important. we're looking at a lot of different options. it is all preadditional. the president said he wants it to be smart and effective. my guess it has to be more targeted than the prior approach to the direct checks. it is not the only policy. i mean, you know, we may extend,

already an extension of the ppp which was so important to these successful jobs numbers. we're looking at a payroll tax holiday for the workforce. we may look at cap gains. we may look at business deductions for restaurants, various entertainment, baseball games, sightseeing and tourism. we certainly want to restrict some covid-19 liability for businesses. so it is a large-scale package and direct checks are probably going to be part of it as far as the president is concerned right now. susan: you know, the president pointed out, in the last two months, we have 7.5 million jobs created. that is very impressive. where does that put us in the recovery though? >> look a lot of people thought we would have as many as 30 million jobs lost we never really got higher than 20, 21 million. right now we've cut that down to a little less than 15 million.

so, we probably covered at least half of the expectations. we have more work to do. i get that. there is still a lot of hardship. there is still a lot of heartbreak out there. i understand that. but again i think, almost eight million jobs in the last two months. it is pretty much spread across the board. i watts looking at the different cohort groups. african-american jobs up 400,000 in june. that is after plus 300,000 in may. hispanics up 1.5 million. that is a huge number. and another majority group, that is to say, women, they jumped in their jobs by three million in the month of june. those are very, very big numbers. i think there is a lot of momentum here. i understand, you have got your hot spots in the southwest. it is not a second round, a continuation of the existing virus that moved south and west. we're on it.

we're sending teams down there to monitor that. we are emphasizing as the president did this morning and yesterday, we are emphasizing the best practices. the masks work in these hot spot areas. you got to have a lot of testing. you have got to keep up the social distancing. you have got to have personal hygiene. those are effective mitigations that help the rest of the country. the numbers are still in the aggregate, very low, particularly fatalities for example. let's do it again in these hot spots and basically we can conquer them. ashley: but do those mitigations those, pauses, if you like in the reopening phases especially in the southwest, does that do anything to the v-shaped recovery, larry? does that kind of drag it out a little bit? >> i don't know. at the moment the answer is no but the next couple weeks will be very instructive. we are securing and monitoring every number. particularly real time, high

frequency numbers to see. we're looking at it very, very careful. hate to make predictions on that. i will say this, so far, you know, really almost daily things like the apple mobility. ashley: index, i, i saw the dal lex texas, manufacturing, hot spot, that has done extremely well until the end of june. we're looking at better trucking, better housing. retail sales are soaring. we'll try to follow everything. we sent teams down to the hot spots in florida, arizona, texas, california, and a few other places. the next few weeks will tell that story and we'll be watching carefully. ashley: we spoke to an economist earlier this morning, larry, who says getting back to full employment is just not going to be possible because some industries have been permanently contracted. do you agree with that and, there is obviously if that is

true, there is nothing you can do about it? >> i'm not sure what that means, permanently contracted. america, with its free market economy, remember president trump cycled policies of low taxes, major reductions in burdensome regulations, opening up energy and better trade deals, more reciprocal trade deals. let's not forget, usmca went into effect yesterday. that will be hugely positive for the u.s. economy. you know these private sector companies are the most innovative, inventive entrepreneurial people. we work with them constantly to deal with the pandemic. we have, you know, shared this with the private sector people. so, i think that people who are, somehow the economy is going too stop and die, as long as we keep a free economy going, as long as we keep to our right policies, i mean, i'm hearing other people on the other side of the aisle talk about major tax increases

to roll back the trump tax cuts. ashley: right. >> to roll back the regulations for a government takeover of health care, for a "green new deal" that will absolutely destroy consumers and traveling and our leadership in natural gas and oil, i mean there are nutty things out there, if they come into place, it is going to be disaster for the stock market and the economy. so if you let the economy stay free, and you keep incentivizing work and investment and risk, then these industries will come back and there will be new industries, ashley, neither of us can even predict right now. ashley: i think you're right. just changing topics here, larry, i want to talk about china. secretary of state pompeo saying they want to restrict now some exports to hong kong, calling hong kong no longer autonomous from beijing. do we have another confrontation facing us with china? >> well look, secretary pompeo is right.

national security director o'brien made the same remarks. the president's made the same remarks. we are very unhappy with china and yes, there are going to be export restrictions, particularly with respect to military, national security, and some sensitive lie technology. because that stuff is going to leak right into communist china on the mainland, takeover of hong kong. so we're very unhappy with them. we're very unhappy with china's hacking into our government and to our private corporations. they are not secure. that's why we're keeping huawei and other chinese phone companies out of our efforts for 5g, which i might add are roaring ahead with tremendous advances in spectrum and software. yeah it is a big problem. we're not in a good mood about china. the president said that repeatedly. ashley: if you're not in a good mood, does that spill over to the trade deal in general? >> we'll i'm in a good mood, ashley. i just want to emphasize that. it is the china problem we don't

like. will it spill over? at the moment, at the moment we are engaged on the trade deal phase one. ambassador lighthizer has been reporting recently as yesterday. economics team met over an hour with the president. the trade deal is proceeding. this is kind of a complex relationship, you know? it operates in many different levels and many different tracks. trade is working right now. we will see if they hold to their promises. certainly hope they do. other aspects, you know, the china virus, and the lack of transparency and reporting, very bad. the hong kong story very bad. the human rights uyghur story, very bad. look at it, taking hong kong's freedom away is a global event. it is sending a message that china cannot be trusted. that china will never be a free country. it moves in exactly the wrong direction. and you know, we're going to have a g7 meeting later in the

summer here in washington, d.c., and the china story is going to be front and center, not just us. europeans are displeased. canadians are displeased. indians and japanese are very displeased. so we'll be talking about that for quite some time. ashley: all right. i will leave it there i believe you. i think you are in a good mood. you have to be in a good mood after that june jobs report. >> july 4th weekend, ashley. let's celebrate america. let's celebrate the greatest country in the history of history. ashley: amen to. that i'm right there with you. larry kudlow, white house chief economic advisor. larry as always, thank you very much. appreciate that. >> thank you. ashley: 30 minutes from now, by the way the president will be holding a spirit of america showcase at the white house. of course when he speaks from there there we will take you live. ♪ 300 miles an hour,

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because of the virus, of course that is bad news as well for those family fire work businesses. let's bring in jeff flock with that story. jeff? reporter: this is the other side of the jobs story today. i'm glad there is good news for some people. in the pyrotechnic industry, not so much. there are typically 16,000 of these displays go on around independence day. this year, most of them canceled. caesar, five-alarm fireworks, family-owned business. you typically do seven or eight. how many are you doing this year? >> just one. reporter: that is today. you're setting up today for tomorrow. this is killing your business you can't recover from a forth of july miss? >> he at this time will be difficult. we're trying. reporter: ashley this is a truck that will go off to a drive-in fireworks display in bridge view, illinois, tomorrow.

maybe you s mortar. fire extinguishers, you have to be safe. what do you call these mortars? >> mortar is typical -- reporter: these are the things they shoot the fireworks out of. and this is some of the stuff. you set them off electronically. you have a huge investment here. you told me your insurance alone is $36,000 a year? >> a year. reporter: you got to pay that whether you have revenue or not? >> correct. i'm not in business if i don't have insurance. reporter: have you gotten as we continue to watch the load, have you gotten any help from the government at all? did you get a ppp loan? >> i did, i did receive a ppp loan. it is just a bandaid. it is not enough to keep us alive. reporter: got you. ashley, we'll be with these guys all day. go out to the stadium. watch them set up. behind the scenes. it is a sad story for folks in the pie owe trek nick

industry -- pyrotechnic industry. losing money and not a way to recoup it. ashley: fascinating story, jeff, thank you very much. gun sales spiked in june. 2.3 million firearms were sold. some retailers are running out of the stock. we've got that story. baseball is back but with a shortened season. is it going to be worth it? i will be asking two-time major league all-star harold reynolds will be on the show. a live look at the white house where the president will hold a spirit of america showcase. when he speaks you will see it right here. stay with us usaa is made for what's next no matter what challenges life throws at you, we're always here to help with fast response and great service and it doesn't stop there we're also here to help look ahead that's why we're helping members catch up by spreading any missed usaa insurance payments over the next twelve months so you can keep more cash in your pockets

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the united states economy added almost five million jobs in the month of june, shattering all expectations. the stock market is doing extremely well which means to me jobs, that's what it means, jobs. it's the largest monthly jobs gain in the history of our country. our economy is roaring back. ashley: roaring back. that was president trump on the blockbuster june jobs report, 4.8 million new jobs added, 7.5 million in the last two months. the unemployment rate now at 11.1%. let's take a live look if we can at the white house. the president again expected to speak this hour. it's at an event called the spirit of america showcase.

in just a few minutes we will bring that to you live. good morning, everybody. i'm ashley webster in today for stuart varney. a lot to cover this morning. that is an understatement. first, let's bring in economist heather zumarraga. good morning to you, heather. you heard what the president had to say. do you agree that the economy is roaring back? >> look, i do think that the economy is coming back. 4.8 million jobs added in june may be the best in our lifetime, but i would caution we still have a long way to go. many millions of americans are still unemployed. but the most positive part of the jobs report was the type of jobs being added, two million of those 4.8 leisure and hospitality, so the retail sector is also coming back and some manufacturing jobs. those were the ones that were hardest hit during the pandemic. so it's a very optimistic sign. ashley: it is indeed. just moments ago, we spoke to national economic director larry

kudlow. listen to what he had to say, if you can, about the democrats. roll the tape on that, please. >> i'm hearing other people on the other side of the aisle talk about major tax increases to roll back the trump tax cuts, to roll back the regulations for a government takeover of health care, for a green new deal that will absolutely destroy consumers and traveling and our leadership in natural gas and oil. there's some nutty things out there that if they come into place, it's going to be disaster for the stock market and the economy. ashley: strong words there. some nutty things out there, says larry kudlow. do you agree if we have a joe biden presidency that the markets are going to tank? >> there are a lot of nutty things out there right now. that's for sure. well, look, rbc surveyed investors. 60% saying biden winning would be a negative for the stock market.

goldman sachs echoing kudlow's concerns as well saying that a rollback of the tax cuts and jobs act would be bad for the economy. bank of america saying they have looked at data going back to 1951 and when the prior administration was republican and democrats take over the white house, the markets underperform for the first three months. so those are some statistics to look at. ashley: they certainly are. of course, you are in florida. i'm looking at the background there. looks beautiful. >> unfortunately, yeah. ashley: yeah. and the cases of coronavirus are spiking, more than 6500 new cases in florida just on wednesday. now, florida governor ron desantis says he will not roll back the reopening. do you think that's the right move? >> well, i think that they, for example, are stopping to serve liquor in some bars so you are kind of capping how late younger people are out at night during

these social gatherings because the spike in cases is happening mainly among the social gatherings with younger people. i think it is a smart move to close the beaches this weekend. i do think that's a smart move because you have big gatherings over fourth of july weekend. but look, despite the surge in cases, especially down here in hot spots like florida which kudlow also addressed that we need to be safe, the market is largely discounting all of this. it really is. it's astonishing and i don't know if it will be a straight v-shaped recovery but if we continue to take safe and cautious measures as we reopen the economy, i think that's the right thing to do. ashley: very quickly, heather, is the market getting ahead of itself now or is this a fair reflection of where the economy's at? >> it's a fair reflection of the data we received this morning, the 4.8 million jobs added but i do think you may see a pullback before we head to higher highs and to year end because it's

only natural to digest. we had a fantastic second quarter so i wouldn't be surprised if you see a little bit of profit taking here. ashley: all right. >> not today, though. ashley: yes, not today, though. thank you so much for joining us. much appreciate it. enjoy florida. now look at this, if you can. more than two million guns sold in the month of june. that, by the way, is a record high for the month. some retailers now say they are running out of stock. let's bring in katy pavlich, fox news contributor. we talked about this before. you own a gun, you are a big supporter of the second amendment. why the sudden spike in sales this year, do you think? >> well, it's pretty obvious what the spike in sales has been. earlier this year we had a number of people going out, first time gun owners, purchasing firearms as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and now of course, in june, as you have seen riots and loots and burning of businesses and the

police unable to get to locations or you have cities around the country saying they are going to defund the police, americans are realizing, as they do in times of civil unrest, that they are going to be their only defense and they are going to their local gun store and signing up and doing their background check and being approved for their firearm. so it's an obvious reaction to the police being unable to protect them and they have watched it play out on their tv screen. ashley: do you think the second amendment is under attack? especially from the fringe, from these far left groups? >> well, the second amendment has always been under attack by the left because they want you to be defenseless. a number of these democrats who are calling for the police departments to be defunded, in other words, the people who are supposed to protect you, they also believe in gun control. so on one hand, they are taking away your government taxpayer funded quote protection, while also making it impossible for you to defend yourself, your

livelihood and your family. as we saw this week, the minneapolis city council voted to eliminate the police department but then with taxpayer funding, hired private security. so they want everyone else to have lots of gun control. they don't want you to be able to defend yourself against the mob and the rioters when they come to burn down your business or your neighborhood, but they are willing to take your money to pay private security to protect themselves. americans are watching this play out. they are buying guns in historic numbers. june is the largest number of gun purchases since the fbi started keeping track of these numbers 20 years ago. it's an obvious reaction of individual personal responsibility and people wanting to maintain their safety at a time of lawlessness in a number of these communities. ashley: quickly, a new poll shows more than 80% of young people have a favorable opinion of the flag. almost 60% say they believe

america is exceptional and unique. that's got to give you at least some hope for the future of the country. that's encouraging, right? >> yes. this is a poll that was done with echelon insights and young america foundation with townhall.com and town hall media. the results are very encouraging, especially ahead of the independence day weekend. you have the vast majority of people standing up and supporting the flag. they are comfortable with saying the national anthem, they believe in the pledge of allegiance. this is a survey of high school and college students who believe that america of course has flaws but is a place that provides opportunity for everybody who lives within it. encouraging numbers as we see this debate on the national stage about statues and the future of the country. ashley: hope for the future. i'll take it. as always, thank you so much for joining us. much appreciate it. thank you. let's take a look at tesla, if we can. more than 90,000 cars delivered just in the last quarter. elon musk says they are now

building mobile molecule printers. what the heck that is. to help a potential coronavirus vaccine. you basically feed it a recipe and it produces the vaccine. sounds pretty amazing. another elon musk undertaking. remarkable. check american airlines, if we can. they say they are overstaffed by almost 8,000 flight attendants. they could cut their work force through early retirement and voluntary leaving. that stock, just slightly down, about nine cents. check mcdonald's. we talked about this earlier. they are pausing their reopening plans. won't allow dine-in service for at least three more weeks. that stock down a buck at $188. take a look at apple. they announced they are reclosing stores in seven more states. not hurting the stock but bringing the total store closures now to 77. the stock up another couple of bucks today. all right. there's a map of those store closures. again, across the south,

including idaho, nevada and utah. live look at the white house. in just a few minutes, we have been telling you, president trump is expected to speak at an event highlighting ingenuity in small business. larry kudlow talked about that, too. it's called the spirit of america showcase. you will see it here live. meanwhile, protesters around the country seemingly want to erase american history but the "wall street journal" dan henninger said they could learn something from the original revolution. that's coming up. rapper vanilla ice encouraging fans to go to his texas concert tomorrow, as the state sees 9,000 new virus cases on wednesday alone. how the lone star state is working to curb new infections. that story next. ♪ and because we don't know exactly when this crisis is going to be over

and we don't know exactly when the stock market will reach its bottom, we've got to be prepared for this to last a long time. if you assume that you're out of work for nine months but you end up only being out of work for...

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let me double-check on that. yes, 3:45 p.m. eastern to talk about this and what they are going to be doing about it. there will be more beach closings. it comes of course at the worst time. there's never a good time for this. but just before the july fourth weekend, a lot of people were praying that the situation be different so they could get out and celebrate our independence but looks like that won't be this weekend, i'm afraid. ashley: all right. bad news out of florida. david, thank you very much. more from you in a moment. next case, though, joe biden wants president trump's tax cuts to disappear. biden telling donors this week quote, i'm going to get rid of the bulk of trump's $2 trillion tax cut and a lot of what you may not like -- that a lot of you may not like that but i'm going to close loopholes like capital gains and stepped-up basis. fighting words, right? let's bring in texas republican

congressman and ranking member of the house ways and means committee, kevin brady. congressman, thank you so much for joining us. you pushed for those tax cuts so what would you say to mr. biden? >> yeah. i can't think of anything more dangerous and irresponsible to the economy than raising taxes and slowing this economy as we're working our way out of a pandemic. what we don't want to do is return to the battle of the days of the obama and biden administration. slowest recovery since world war ii, wages were stagnant, jobs were moving overseas. exactly the opposite of what we have seen under the trump administration. so i think joe biden simply doesn't understand the economy. he's shown that for many years. right now, more than ever, what we need to be doing is making those tax cuts permanent, keeping dollars in the pockets of families of our small businesses, encouraging new investment and obviously we have

already seen a number of jobs in dollars repatriated back to the united states under the trump tax cuts. we want to continue that, not reverse it. ashley: okay. next one, congressman. take a look at this. according to the bankrate housing hardship index, the texas economy is ranked the 14th worst in the united states, during a pandemic which i find fascinating because texas has been getting so many kudos from around the country for low tax and low regulation. so how can you explain this, 14th worst in the country? it's surprising. >> yeah. one word. energy. we took a double whammy here both on the covid impact and energy's such a big part of our economy in a very good way and it has -- that was an unprecedented hit on top of the unprecedented covid. we are working our way out of it. we understand booms and busts.

this one's pretty unusual, to say the least, but i think today's jobs report which is very encouraging, the strongest monthly jobs gain on record, it appears we have in may and june recovered about a third of the jobs lost during covid. it certainly appears that the recession was much shallower than anticipated and the basis, the fundamentals for the recovery remain strong. ashley: i want to ask you this very quickly, congressman. look, the democrats want to extend the benefits of $600 a month extra through, well, through january. some republicans say you should reduce that amount of money because it disincentivizes people to go back to work. but you in particular have proposed a one-time bonus of i think it was, what, $1200 to go back to work. do you still believe in that? >> yeah, more now than ever.

what's turned out, it's designed to help people who are laid off, now a barrier to return to work. if we don't change those incentives, i guarantee you we will have fewer local businesses survive, this recovery will be slower, recession will be longer and so let's create incentives to help people reconnect to their previous job or another job, frankly. it's important to their health as well as the economy. ashley: do you think congress is doing enough to help especially small businesses? i know the deadline's been extended on the ppp program. is there enough out there to help these businesses hang on, especially as we are seeing some businesses being forced to reclose again? >> yeah. so i think the ppp has been incredibly successful, in my estimati estimation, it saved probably 40 million jobs or more. it's really important we keep those workers there. some of the parts of our economy are recovering faster than

others so i think you're looking at perhaps another round of ppp within the $120 billion we have left in that program. i think congress, certainly for us, we are focused on reconnecting those workers, helping business offset the cost of reconfiguring and creating that healthy workplace but we may need some more additional lending for small businesses and medium size businesses as we work through the rest of the year. ashley: all right. great stuff. congressman kevin brady, as always, thank you so much for joining us today. much appreciate it. >> thank you. take care. ashley: all right. you, too. let's take a live look if we can, we are going to get another story here. let's shift gears. that's appropriate because we are talking about car makers and auto sales. taking a major hit, of course, in the months since the pandemic began but come back in on this, david asman. i guess the question is how bad is it? david: it's awful. and we knew it was coming.

frankly, it had been forecast to be awful but i will just give you some numbers. nissan sales down 50%. fiat chrysler, bmw down 39%. gm down 34%. hyundai down 18%. look, you are locked in because of the pandemic, you can't go anywhere, you can't go from state to state because of these different orders. you are ordering in so there's very little driving going on. when you don't need your car, you don't think about buying another one. it's simple. but they are thinking that with turning of the tide of the economy, things are going to change. of course, now you have the reclosings that are happening in some states. we just talked about florida, with the highest covid numbers ever. so you know, it's not looking good. on the other hand, you mentioned tesla having record numbers. by the way, the market capitalization of tesla now is $220 billion. that's ten times, ten times the

market cap of ford motor company. ten times. ashley: incredible. david: more than ford. amazing. ashley: talking of ford, nice segue, david, ford teaming up with disney, right? david: this is incredible. yeah. they have a new bronco series. their most famous model is the 4x4. they are coming out with this on july 13th. originally they were going to come out with it in june at the international auto show in detroit. of course, that had to be canceled because of the pandemic. they figured they would partner with disney. they will be on all of disney's various properties, abc, there's going to be a special three-minute film with country music singer kip moore. espn will be having one, national geographic will feature a professional climber, jimmy chin. i don't know him. i'm sure you do because you are a big rock climber, i know. that's going to be at the national parks, by the way,

yosemite. all of these different formats that you are sweating just thinking about, all the different formats of disney are going to be featuring this. it's going to be a huge advertising push. they need it because as we just mentioned, sales are way down. people love broncos, of course, they love ford trucks. this is similar to that. it's an suv, their prime model here. but they also have the 4x4. we'll see how it goes. look, we are america. we know how to sell things. and when times turn bad, we don't just run for cover and put our head in the sand. we figure out new ways of doing things. that's precisely what ford is doing. good for them. ashley: good for them. yeah. rock climbing and my fear of heights, not a good combo. it does make me break out in a sweat. thank you very much. i get dizzy putting socks on. let's take a look at a -- a live look, if we can, at the white house. we are now just moments away, we talked about this this morning, from president trump's speech.

it's at an event called the spirit of america showcase. we will bring that to you live. they are all set up and ready to go. guess what? the boys of summer are back. kind of. baseball players are arriving at training camp. the question is, what will their shortened season look like? we'll have that next. first, let's take a live look if we can at wrigley field in chicago courtesy of earthcam. we'll be right back. ♪ this is decision tech. find a stock based on your interests or what's trending. get real-time insights in your customized view of the market. it's smarter trading technology for smarter trading decisions. fidelity.

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♪ ashley: r-o-c-k in the usa. we are just moments away. we have been saying this for awhile now but i promise you, from president trump's speech at the spirit of america showcase. you can see it's all laid out very nicely. all we need is the president. it's happening at the white house. we will be of course monitoring all of this and bring it to you live when it gets under way. all right. but first, let's move on, if we can. some breaking news. the ringleader of the group that tried to tear down the andrew jackson monument in washington, d.c.'s lafayette square has been arrested. that news coming in from federal law enforcement.

there you can see video from june 22nd. all right. time to bring in dan henninger, deputy editorial page editor of "wall street journal." dan, your piece this week, interesting, you compare protests like the one in lafayette square to the american revolution all the way back in 1776. just a little different, right? >> just a little bit different. yes, indeed. i think it's worth comparing that revolution to the one going on now, especially since they have been tearing down or defacing the monument to one american president after another, and there's one thing they cannot eliminate and that is the fourth of july. it will happen whether they like it or not this saturday. what does the fourth of july represent? it is july fourth, 1776, independence day, but more explicitly, the signing by the declaration of independence by the country's founding fathers. what i'm recommending to people

is that this weekend, they take some time to pull down a copy of the declaration and actually read through it. it's less than 1500 words. it's not a long read. what you will see is what a real revolution sounds like, not the one we have today. the revolutionists back then on their way to the american revolution, they wrote in a tone of optimistic defiance. the revolutionaries today convey more of a pessimistic defiance. the revolutionaries back then were talking about building and creating a new nation, the united states. the revolutionaries in the streets today are talking about tearing things down, it's an exercise in elimination, not creation. very different than what was going on back then and very different than the tradition we celebrate every fourth of july. ashley: dan, how does this play out across america? what's the pulse of the country? what's the psyche when we witness these types of events,

these statues being pulled down, police attacked and spit on? what does america think of that? >> well, a couple of things. i write this week that i think we are in a revolutionary moment not merely because of the people in the streets, but because so many members of the establishment, the heads of academe, business, the media, publishing companies, have so automatically signed on to this agenda and that gives it legitimacy. they did that very quickly. but i think out there in the country, people are stunned and shocked at how quickly this has happened and that there's eventually going to be a counterreaction, a backlash against what's going on not just in the streets, but among some of america's liberal elites. once people gather themselves, i think you are going to start to see pushback at the extremity and the destructive positions that have been taken by these protesters in the streets. it is coming.

ashley: i totally agree with you. next one, president trump doing a victory lap after the release of some very strong jobs numbers for the month of june this morning. earlier this morning, i spoke with national economic council director larry kudlow and he said the news is good for everyone. take a listen. >> almost eight million jobs in the last two months. africa ncn-american jobs up 4000 in june. that's after plus 300,000 in may. hispanics up 1.5 million. that's a huge number. another majority group, that is to say women, they jumped in their jobs by three million in the month of june. those are very very big numbers. ashley: well, dan, is larry correct? i would say that plays right into donald trump's wheelhouse. >> i would say so. i think the president is entitled to take something of a victory lap here. it's a confirmation of the

strong economy that we had the first three years of the trump presidency, but let's also give some credit to the governors who decided to reopen their economies. they have taken a lot of criticism but clearly, these numbers are the result of not keeping the american economy locked down longer than necessary. what it showed is there are a lot of people out there who still believe in the culture of work and they are the ones across the states who are now going back to work. that is where the economy is reviving. clearly we don't want to, despite the surge in coronavirus cases, we do not want to go back into the lockdown situation we were in several months ago. that would send us towards a recession. ashley: yes, it certainly would. great stuff, as always, dan henninger. thanks for joining us this morning, dan. >> good to be with you. ashley: all right. long delay. good to be with you, too. turning now to sports, let's do a little sports recap. for the very first time,

nathan's hot dog eating contest will be open to legal betting, believe it or not. as of now, only in new jersey, new hampshire and colorado. the competition takes place on the fourth of july. not for the faint of heart. nascar driver carry lajoy is debuting his trump 2020 theme car at the sunday brickyard 400 in indianapolis. there is a picture of it. espn is reporting that the nba plans to spend $150 million to finish the last three months of the season all in orlando at disneyland. the nba expected to lose more than $1 billion. just another example of what the virus has done and the lockdown. yes, by the way, baseball is coming back. a very shortened season. time to bring in harold reynolds, mlb network analyst and former all-star. great player. harold, thanks for being here. what can we expect from this shortened season? >> well, i think it's going to be one of the most competitive

stretches we have seen. we usually play 162 games. so with only 60 games, this is pretty compelling because i think all 30 teams have a chance to be in the race. then we will see what happens. ashley: yeah, but my feeling is what if we suddenly -- we are seeing a resurgence, if you like, of virus cases. what if one or two players on a team test positive? wouldn't the whole team have to then go into quarantine and what does that do to, you know, how the season plays out because if you take one team out of it, it changes everything. >> there's no doubt about it. the whole thing is affected by the virus. that's why we're playing 60 games. the one thing i will say about baseball, you've got a 40-man roster. normally we play 25-man rosters. you carry your whole 40 man, including 15 of your minor league guys, then you have a taxi squad of 20 other minor league players or different free

agents you may have signed. they've got about 60 players to try to get them through the season. now, they have already started their entry testing already, and fortunately, the results have been pretty good so far. we had a number of teams that haven't had any players test positive. couple teams had one or two. as you know, we don't know how this will continue on, but right now it's off to a pretty good start. ashley: well, you know, of course it's fourth of july weekend coming up. baseball is america's pasttime. how important is it for the country to see these players out there competing again? >> i think it's huge. you look back at fourth of july, it was always a big time to galvanize the country. i hope with baseball being one of the first sports back, it's always been a way of healing whether it's 9/11 or whether it's even after the strike, we had '94 and you watched cal ripken make his run. we have always been in that pulse of giving a little upbeat

on-to-the country and clearly we need it now. hopefully baseball gets back and gives us this little extra push. ashley: amen to that. tell me about your upcoming special on the mlb network. what's going on? >> you know, tomorrow, friday, is the first full day of workouts. we are on from 11:00 a.m. all day. as you well know, if you don't know, all the teams are now training at their own home facilities like the yankees in yankee stadium, the mets at citi field. wherever it might be, each team is at their own ballpark. so we will go across from east coast to the west coast and cover all the workouts all day long. ashley: back to work for harold reynolds. i bet you can't wait. harold, thank you so much for joining us today. much appreciated. >> thanks for having the time. really appreciate it. take care, now. ashley: all right. you, too. play ball. all right. you are taking a live look at the white house. we have been doing this for awhile. we continue to say we are just moments away from president trump's speech. it's at an event called the

spirit of america showcase. we are still waiting. of course, we will bring that to you live. looks like they are all set up and ready to go. take a look at this. seattle is more than 44% more expensive to live in than austin, texas. that's a lot. and businesses are taking notice. our next guest is packing up and moving to the lone star state in a move he says will benefit his workers. interesting. more "varney" after this. ♪ was that your grandfather,

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as long as he or she accepts medicare patients. and three: these are the only medicare supplement plans endorsed by aarp. learn more about why you should choose an aarp medicare supplement plan. call today for a free guide. ashley: all right. you are looking at a live look inside the white house. yes, that is the president right there, looking at some exhibits for an event called the spirit of america. he's chatting with each group there with their individual exhibits. we are expecting the president to speak at some point and when

he does, of course, we will go there live. in the meantime, peter rex is his name. he's a billionaire founder and ceo of rex teams. he's leaving seattle and moving to texas so his employees can have better lives. why? well, he was in seattle and that's more than 44% more expensive to live in than austin, texas. let's bring peter in. peter, great to have you with us. i'm sure there's more than just the cost of living but that is remarkable. is that what drove you out of seattle? >> thanks for having me. there's really three main things that drove us out. the first is i want to be a service. that means i have to find a place for my employees where they can buy a home. second is i want a place where the american dream is still flourishing and liberty reins and is a business-friendly environment. the third is i'm looking for the next big wave, the next 30-year

wave. the last 30 years has really belonged to seattle and san francisco in technology. with microsoft and amazon. but as a ceo and investor, i need to think about where the next wave is going to be. i think it's going to be elsewhere. ashley: describe for our viewers what it was like in seattle in these last, you know, several weeks and the chaos we witnessed around that capitol hill area. >> yeah, ashley, what's interesting is we had already made the decision to move out of seattle, but the recent happenings have actually been confirmation and consolation for spouses, for the employees, where they have more confidence in me as a leader and they realize it's really high time to get elsewhere and to be setting up our companies and our families in a place that's a little more friendly towards raising children. ashley: why austin? texas is a huge state. austin i know is kind of a tech hub. is that what attracted you?

>> yeah. i mean, it's central to the country, it's a lower cost of living and a lot of people, you know, they mentioned austin is the most liberal city in texas. well, to that, i say i don't have a problem with liberal or conservative. i have a problem where there's no diversity of opinions. the west coast is becoming more monolithic in that sense. in austin, you have opposing views are still alive and well. i think that's a better environment to get to the truth and in the long run, i think texas is going to stay free and the culture is very strong there. ashley: how many of your employees are on board? are some saying i can't leave seattle or are they enthusiastic? >> well, throughout the company, we have about 500 employees but of the ones that we have to move, i would say about 90% are able to move and are enthusiastic and the other 10% that are unable to move, we will be looking to keep them even though we will have headquarters

in austin. it doesn't mean we can't allow some people to work remotely. ashley: i mean, it's going to be a huge amount of money savings, right, to live in texas not only, you know, cheaper cost of living but the tax situation is a lot more friendly. >> oh, absolutely. that puts money directly in the pockets of employees because they don't have an income tax and it's also, they have less cost of living when it comes to child care, other things like that. that also frees them up more and they can give back to the company even more and to our customers by having a little more extra time to really put that energy in and i think even from a spiritual or kind of mental standpoint right now, they are very grateful that i put them first here rather than myself because as we know, ceos that are founders are successful and we have the means to live wherever we would like. oftentimes a ceo just puts the headquarters wherever he prefers. i'm putting them first. that's why i made this decision.

ashley: very good. we wish you the very best of luck in your new home in austin, texas. peter rex, thanks so much. >> thank you, ashley. ashley: last week, i learned something very interesting about myself. roll that tape. >> hey, siri, how old is ashley webster? >> ashley webster is 119 years old. susan: 119 years old? i don't believe it. ashley: yeah. i don't look a day over 70. i'll take it. the question is what will you, the viewers, tell us this week? our thursday feedback after the break. ♪ liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. i wish i could shake your hand. granted.

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♪ ashley: all right. how beautiful is that. we've got good vibrations as we take a live look at clearwater beach in florida. wouldn't it be great to be there. the holiday weekend about to kick off. first, we want to share some friday feedback.

it's thursday, okay, but we will do this. you have been sending in your comments all week. susan li, come on in. let's take a look. i will kick it off. we can just move the prompter up. first one comes from james white, who writes absolutely love your show. thank you, james. as a new investor, i have learned a lot from watching. keep up the good work. thank you. more susan li, the better. all right, we get the message. susan: my mom actually wrote that. very sweet and supportive. okay. this one comes from james, who says can you please stop playing all the annoying music instead just your show's theme music. you are not mtv, exclamation point. i will respectfully disagree. i thought there was great music this hour. we had miley cyrus and vanilla ice. you know, we go through the entire generational gamut, right? ashley: we do. susan: yes. ashley: and the beach boys, good

vibrations. okay. not everyone's cup of tea. no beatles. people upset about that, i'm sure. jeff writes you are without a doubt my favorite coverage of business and markets. jeff, you are very discerning. like my morning coffee, it's an essential activity. i like that. all right. your go, susan. susan: well, apparently the last one comes from michelle. it says if you received my angry e-mail yesterday, so sorry for being nasty [ inaudible ]. also, my social media the day john bolton appeared, i also sent out a promotion saying he's coming up at this time. there was a lot of backlash to that. ashley: yes, indeed. we all got that. at least michelle admitted patience running thin. we understand. thank you all who responded. we will be back at this next week. keep writing to us. maybe even send us a video. send it to varneyviewers@foxbusiness.com.

more "varney" after this. ♪ . . >> beautiful, great, white house, to host this magnificent showcase of america's incredible small businesses. i just got to witness some beautiful product. today we received outstanding news from all over our country, really. the united states economy has added almost five million new jobs in the month of june. that's shattering all expectations and shattering all records, historic records. in the history of our country we never added anywhere near that.

last month we also broke the record but now we shattered it, much higher than even last month. this is the largest monthly jobs gain in history. we added 2.1 million leisure and hospitality jobs, 740,000 retail jobs. 568,000 education jobs and health care jobs. 357,000 service jobs. and very importantly, to me, you know what's happening with manufacturing, we're bringing it back, because we made incredible trade deals. so manufacturing jobs are coming back. we added 356,000 manufacturing jobs. incredible, incredible numbers. all records. african-american workers made historic gains, the likes of which we have never had before with 404,000 new jobs in june. that's a record. and that's the highest number

ever. we had 700,000 new jobs over the last two months for african-american workers, that's the highest ever and both months are the highest. we shattered last month's record. that was a record and we shattered it. hispanic employment is up by 1.5 million jobs. great businessmen and women, they're up 1.5, think of it, a million jobs, hispanic. 80% of small businesses are now open. new business applications have doubled since late march. america's economy is coming back much stronger than ever anticipated by most people, almost all people because these numbers were, even the most optimistic people, these numbers are being doubled and tripled over what they thought would be possible. we are grateful to be joined today by secretary of commerce wilbur ross. thank you very much, wilbur. thank you very much. you're doing a great job.

every company here today embodies true american excellence. your stunning craftsmanship, i just witnessed some of this. it is incredible. it its treasured and prized auld over the world. the product you make is like none other and your spirit of america and the greatness of our country is unrivaled. with us are workers who make decorative american flags from virginia, fly fishing reels from florida, grills from illinois, pies from north carolina, look very good to me. coffee from oklahoma, ice cream from maryland and sunscreen and baseball bats from texas with unmatched skill and devotion you make the goods and build the products that proudly bear the wonderful phrase, made in the usa. you're seeing that more and more. made in the usa. we're bringing our jobs back because of trade deals, we have

great trade deals and jobs are coming back. we have a lot of great trade deals right now undernegotiation. we have got to get them done as quickly as possible. the small businesses represented in this room continue a great and noble american heritage. you're entrepreneurs, artisans, creators, craftsmen who forged your own path, made your own products and provide good-paying jobs for our citizens. incredible jobs, incredible people, and they truly are artisans. you're doing it all with american hands, american heart and american pride. several of these companies are entirely veteran-owned and operated. especially as we approach independence day, i want to thank the courageous men and women who have served their country in uniform. we vow to honor your sacrifice by forever defending the rights,

freedoms and principles you risked your entire life to defend. following the arrival of the plague from china, that is what it is, it is a plague, it should have never happen, china should have never have let that happen. but china did allow to it happen. we just signed a brand new trade deal. the ink wasn't even dry when this came over. but we raced into action to save our nation's small businesses. we passed over three trillion in historic relief measures. three trillion dollars, think of that, including over $670 billion for the paycheck protection program, a tremendous success as you can see by the numbers. to keep small business workers on the payroll. i signed a bill providing federally-funded paid sick leave and paid family leave for american workers, things that have never been done. we're alng